The Gambia – COVID, Classes & Concerns

Email from Manhee Yoon, a full-time Global Scholar in the Christian Studies Program at The University of The Gambia:

Sept 3, 2020

We are slowly getting ready for the new academic year. The university announced this week that the lectures will begin on Sept. 28th, and they will be online again. They will distribute data to students so that they can go online for classes and use it for their studies. Data distribution caused a lot of confusion and frustration for students last year. Hopefully, things will go more smoothly this time.
 
Online classes were very difficult both for lecturers and students last semester. Now with a very unstable electricity supply, the situations are not any better than the last semester, or could even be worse, so we would appreciate your prayers. Please pray that online classes will go well and that students will learn the things that they need to learn.  
 
We were very pessimistic about having any new students, but, to our great surprise, there were some applicants and five of them were admitted. It is a smaller number compared to those of the previous years, but since we expected a smaller number or even zero, we are very happy and thankful. Praise God for sending those students to our program. The ages of the new students range from 26 to 39 years old, and two of them are female students. Now we will do our best to help them to get settled into the program well.
 
The COVID-19 situations remain quire worrisome, the number of confirmed new cases constantly growing; we have more than 3,000 cases now. We hear of deaths of people here and there. The lockdown and the state of emergency have been imposed on the country since March 17. The grievances and complaints are growing in the minds of the people against the government, so we are hoping and praying that it will not lead to any form of demonstrations.
 
Thank you for your support and prayers,
 
Manhee

*Photo from Pixabay at Pexels